World Day for Safety and Health AT Work – Objective: Zero Accidents and Zero Case of Ebola

Ahead of the World Day for Safety and Health at Work established on April 28, Bolloré Africa Logistics, Total and Clinique Ambroise Paré of Conakry have promoted together the prevention of occupational accidents and diseases by organizing awareness sessions at the Bluezone of Kaloum . Jerome Mouillé, QHSE Manager at Bolloré Africa Logistics talks about the awareness campaign.

Why is it important to celebrate the world day for safety and health at work?

This is an opportunity to unite and educate again all our teams. This year, we focused on the 12 golden rules of safety, first aid and the fight against Ebola. Our goal is “Zero accidents, Zero cases of Ebola.”

The Bolloré Group has joined Total and the Clinique Ambroise Pare to organize this day. Tell us about this collaboration?

“Security is everybody’s business.” This collaboration allowed us to mutually complement our knowledge of security and emergency actions. I thank these two companies for having actively participated in our day of the 2015 security.

Is the occupational risk increasing on Conakry Terminal, due to its rapid modernization and the expansion of the port?

The modernization of Conakry Terminal is twofold: improve productivity while reducing any risks to people and property. During the construction phase, we increased our capacity in terms of HSE, specifically to deal with the coincidence between the work and operations. The involvement of our senior management, suppliers, employees and our partners have enabled us to avoid the risk of a major accident during this transitional phase. All means are in place to keep building on this momentum.

With regard to health matters, there have been no cases of Ebola within the Bolloré Group. What preventive actions have you implemented to prevent the risk of contagion in your teams?

First, close collaboration between the Directorate, the medical service, the QHSE department, human resources, peer educators and instances of staff representatives. This synergy has enabled effective communication early in the epidemic, which has seen no slackening since. For 1 year, weekly conference calls with the Crisis Headquarters have allowed us to implement a strict action plan to minimize the risks. We communicate on a daily basis to all our managers and their teams the latest updates and locations where new cases were detected in Guinea.

The Bluezone of Kaloum generally gathers more than 2,000 to 3,000 people at a single event. How do you ensure security in these cases?

At each event, we strengthen the security guards staffing to maintain discipline and order to protect persons and property. Regarding prevention against Ebola, all the measures mentioned above also applies to the Bluezone of Kaloum to minimize the risk of contagion.